Welcome to ChalkTalk, where engaging and interactive lessons await both you and your students! As a teacher, it's essential to understand the various components of an Illustrative Math (IM) lesson to create a dynamic learning environment. In this guide, we'll break down the key elements of a typical lesson, helping you navigate through warm-ups, classroom activities, lesson synthesis, and cool-downs.
In this article, we'll cover:
Optional Activities Consideration
Within the IM curriculum, you may come across activities labeled as "optional." These activities serve specific purposes and are marked as optional for several reasons:
Foundational Review: Some activities address concepts or skills below the grade level, offering students an opportunity to reinforce their understanding before progressing to grade-level material.
Extended Concepts: Certain activities explore concepts that go beyond the standard requirements. While these activities enhance learning, they can be skipped without affecting the core curriculum.
Additional Practice: Optional activities provide extra practice for concepts that many students might benefit from, but not necessarily all. Use your professional judgment to decide if class time is warranted for such activities.
The Four Phases of an IM Lesson
A ChalkTalk IM lesson follows a well-defined structure, consisting of four distinct phases:
Warm-up: The opening phase of the lesson, the warm-up, serves either to prepare students for the day's lesson or to reinforce their numerical and procedural skills. A lesson's warm-up can:
Remind students of familiar contexts or previous lessons.
Preview calculations that may arise during the lesson.
Strengthen number sense or procedural fluency through mental arithmetic or numerical reasoning.
During the warm-up, teachers can employ various routines such as Number Talks, Notice and Wonder, Which One Doesn't Belong, and True or False. These routines not only enhance mathematical comprehension but also develop students' speaking and listening skills.
It's recommended that warm-ups take approximately 5–10 minutes. Should warm-ups consistently exceed this time, strategies can be implemented to optimize efficiency.
At the start of the academic year, consider establishing a non-intrusive hand signal indicating students have a well-thought-out answer. This practice prevents distractions and time constraints caused by raised hands.
Classroom Activities: Following the warm-up, the heart of each ChalkTalk lesson lies in the sequence of one to three classroom activities. These activities serve a variety of purposes:
Introduce new concepts and contexts.
Familiarize students with new mathematical language and representations.
Formally define terms previously introduced informally.
Address common errors and misconceptions.
Cultivate proficiency in using mathematical language.
Facilitate mastery of concepts or procedures.
Apply mathematics to real-world problems.
Lesson Synthesis: After the classroom activities, allocate 5–10 minutes for students to synthesize their newfound knowledge. This synthesis phase precedes the cool-down and aids students in integrating new insights into their overarching comprehension.
During this time, teachers can:
Pose questions orally and encourage responses from volunteers.
Have students respond to prompts in a written journal.
Utilize graphic organizers or concept maps for visual representation.
Add new elements to persistent displays like word walls.
Cool-down: Concluding the lesson, the cool-down task is assigned to students for approximately 5 minutes. This brief formative assessment evaluates students' understanding of the lesson's content. Their responses guide further instructional adjustments.
The cool-down tasks serve as indicators of student's grasp of the lesson and provide valuable insights into their progress.
By mastering the structure of a ChalkTalk lesson, you can craft a stimulating educational experience that supports your student's growth and learning journey. Remember, while the components are standardized, your expertise and creativity play a crucial role in tailoring each lesson to your student's unique needs.
That's all :)
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References:
Author(s): Kendall Hunt Interactive Mathematics
Year: 2019
Title of the Webpage: A Typical IM Lesson
URL: https://im.kendallhunt.com/MS/teachers/typical_lesson.html
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